Statistically, around 20% of a given population are naturally inclined fraudsters, with another 60% that may or may not be so inclined - given opportunities to do so - and a remaining 20% that are always or almost always honest.

As such, being strictly objective about it, the proportion of cheaters in this test could be as high as 80%.

okay this is hilarious, either people are cheating, or everyone here is unbelievably smart. How can this many people achieve the 99th percentile ?!
I took the test and deliberately didn't cheat even though it's so easy, because obviously it defeats the purpose. I find it hard to believe that almost all of you have encountered those words, let alone fully comprehend their meaning.
I got a score of 121 which is in the 93rd percentile, but if I cheated as I suspect many did, I'm sure I would have attained at least 99% like many of you.
Or I could be wrong and you're all linguistical geniuses that are wasting their brain power on interference when they could be using their incredible (although apparently ubiquitous on this board) eloquence to solve pressing international diplomacy issues.

In the case that these scores are legit, I am shamed to be in your presence and may the mods please delete this post at their own behest.

Statistically, around 20% of a given population are naturally inclined fraudsters, with another 60% that may or may not be so inclined - given opportunities to do so - and a remaining 20% that are always or almost always honest.

As such, being strictly objective about it, the proportion of cheaters in this test could be as high as 80%.

so you probably cheated

__________________“Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe.”
~Frank Zappa

yes well I took that into account but I am still finding it hard to believe that nobody cheated to get 99% + to make themselves look better than other anonymous internet users.

It helps to 1) be a voracious reader; 2) have a good knowledge of root words; and 3) be good at taking multiple choice tests/guessing via process of elimination.

In this case, the latter really helped me. Also, I've always been a dictionary dork. It started when I was little. I'd ask my mom what a word meant, and she'd tell me to look it up. I got into the habit, and I still do it to this day. In fact, one of my firefox search engines is dictionary.com. I'm always looking words up.

Given that this is voluntary, you probably won't have a lot of low scores disclosed.

It would be interesting to see people post, along with their score, how much they read. For example, I probably read on average around 200 pages a day, every day. What's more, the things I read are couched in awful, arcane, complicated legal language and that alone exposes you to a larger vocabulary.

And like I said, you can be taught how to take these tests. The famous Kaplan proved that to be case when he started instructing from his basement in Brooklyn, and the rest is history.

Since I paid to see the overall results, I put my overall score up, which was a 140. However, I got a 130 on the vocabulary section. I majored in English Education and am one credit short of having a Masters in English Language and Literature. I read constantly (probably a book or two a week) and have always done well on tests that assess vocabulary knowledge and ability to determine relationships between words (690 verbal Sat- 570 Math....)

I don't find it that surprising that the people browing this particular forum have a large vocabulary.

Just because I had at least some sort of inkling as to what a lot of those words meant, however, doesn't mean that I throw them around in conversation.

I didn't score in the 99 percentile, so obviously I didn't cheat. Or perhaps I'm just an underachieving cheater.

I'm not surprised by anybody here who scored 99+. There are a lot of readers on this forum. You come across a lot of words reading you don't use everyday (or ever). You absorb when you read whether you are conscious of it or not. I'm also fairly certain I'm not going to take a test I don't expect to do well on. So when somebody posts the math test, I'm not taking it.